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Monday, 30 September 2013

Syria, Sarin, and Casus Belli by Michael Parenti

Here is a new article I just finished writing. Feel free to post or share, giving due and proper attribution to the author.

Syria, Sarin, and Casus Belli by Michael Parenti

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that on August 21 the
Assad government slaughtered 1,429 people, including 426 children, in a
sarin chemical attack in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. (Doctors Without
Borders put the total at about 300.)
Secretary Kerry insisted that now the United States had no choice but to
launch U.S. bombing attacks against President Bashar al-Assad,
devolving into another of America's "humanitarian wars."

The Sarin Mysteries
Following Kerry, President Obama announced that the situation in Syria
had changed irredeemably since August 21. The United States would have
to attack. But, on second thought, Obama decided to leave the decision
up to (a seemingly reluctant) Congress. A few weeks later, Turkish
prosecutors issued a lengthy court indictment charging the Syrian rebels
with seeking to use chemical weapons. The indictment suggested that
sarin gas and other "weapons for a terrorist organization" were utilized
by the opposition and not by the Assad government. The "Syrian
freedom fighters" include men who are not even Syrian, much like the
many mujahedeen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan but who were not
Afghani. As reported in the Wall Street Journal (September 19, 2013),
the ISIS, an Iraqi al Qaeda outfit operating in Syria, "has become a
magnet for foreign jihadists" who view the war in Syria not primarily as
a means to overthrow Assad "but rather as a historic battleground for a
larger Sunni holy war. According to centuries-old Islamic prophecy
they espouse, they must establish an Islamic state in Syria as a step to
achieving a global one."

Wrong Hands Meanwhile, a Mint
Press News story quoted residents in Ghouta who asserted that Saudi
Arabia gave chemical weapons to an al Qaeda-linked group. Residents
blamed this terrorist group for the deadly explosions of August 21. They
claimed that some of the rebels handled the weapons improperly and
thereby set off the explosions. Anti-government forces, interviewed in
the article, said they had not been informed about the nature of the
weapons nor how to use them. “When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such
weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle
them,” complained one rebel militant.

At the same time, the
Russian government submitted a 100-page report to the United Nations in
early September, regarding an attack upon the Syrian city of Aleppo in
March 2013. It concludes that the rebels---not the Syrian
government---used the nerve agent sarin. According to a member of the
U.N. independent commission of inquiry, Carla Del Ponte, there were
"strong, concrete suspicions . . . of the use of sarin gas." Del Ponte
added: "This was used on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not the
government authorities." Many of those killed by the gas attack were
Syrian soldiers, according to the report.

If true, then we
might wonder why are chemical weapons and other weaponry and supplies
being supplied to various al Qaeda-type groups? Is not al Qaeda a secret
terrorist organization that delivers death and destruction upon people
everywhere? Are we Americans not locked in a global struggle with the
demonic jihadists who supposedly hate us because we are rich,
successful, and secular, while they are impoverished failures? That
certainly is the scenario the U.S. public has been fed for over a
decade.

The United States claims it provides military
assistance only to "vetted" rebel groups, "free ones" that are friendly
toward America and are not Islamic fanatics. (Although, as Senator
Croker, Republican from Tennessee, admitted: we sometimes make
"mistakes" and give weapons to the wrong rebels.) On September 17,
President Obama waived a provision in the federal law that prohibits
supplying arms to terrorist groups. To many of us this was an unspoken
admission that Washington was giving aid to extremist Islamic groups, of
which al Qaeda was only the best advertised.

Remember the Casus Belli
It is difficult for me to accept the charge that on August 21 the
Syrian government waged a chemical onslaught in Ghouta against its own
people in a situation that was bound to backfire in the worst possible
way---by handing over to the U.S. war hawks a casus belli, a perfect
excuse to wreak retaliatory "humanitarian" death and destruction upon
Syria. This is the last thing the Assad government wants.

Remember how the Spaniards asked the Americans not to send the USS Maine
to Havana Harbor in 1898. They feared that something might happen to
the ship and the U.S. would use that mishap as a casus belli, putting
the blame on Spain. Sure enough, the Maine blew up while sitting in the
harbor, sending U.S. public opinion into a jingoistic fury against the
Spaniards. But why would Spaniards perpetrate the very act that would
give the Americans an excuse and an inducement to wage a war that Spain
most certainly did not want and could not win?

And let us not
forget the hundreds of imaginary Kuwaiti babies torn from incubators and
dashed upon hospital floors by snarling, maniacal Iraqi soldiers. And
remember the never-to-be-found weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that
Saddam supposedly was preparing to use but never got around to doing so.
And then there's that Serbian general---never identified or
located---who purportedly told his troops (also never identified) to "go
forth and rape." And Qaddafi who reportedly handed out Viagra to his
Libyan troops so they could go forth and rape with a drug-driven vigor, a
story so obviously fabricated that it was dropped after two days.

Choice: Satellite or Enemy
Why do (some) U.S. leaders seek war against Syria? Like Yugoslavia,
Iraq, Libya and dozens of other countries that have felt America's
terrible swift sword---Syria has been committing economic nationalism,
trying to chart its own course rather than putting itself in service to
the western plutocracy. Like Iran, China, Russia and some other nations,
Syria has currency controls and other restrictions on foreign
investments. Like those other nations, Syria lacks the proper
submissiveness. It is not a satellite to the U.S. imperium. And any
nation that is not under the politico-economic sway of the U.S. global
plutocracy is considered an enemy or a potential enemy.

The
Assad government had social programs for its people, far from perfect
services but still better than what might be found in many U.S.
satellite countries. When Iraqi refugees fled to Syria to escape U.S.
military destruction, the Assad government gave them full benefits. So
with the Libyan refugees who crossed over a few years later. Generally
Damascus presided over a multi-ethnic society, relatively free of
sectarian intolerance and violence.

Syria has been ruled by the
Ba'ath Party which has dominated the country's parliament and military
for half a century. The party's slogan is "Unity, Freedom, Socialism."
Socialism? Now that gets us closer to why the trigger-happy boys in
Washington will continue to pursue a "humanitarian war" of attrition and
a prolonged campaign of demonization against Assad and his "regime."

Weapons of Mass Destruction Redux
On September 10, the Syrian government welcomed a Russian proposal
calling for Syria to place all of its chemical weapons under
international control and for the weapons to be destroyed. Here was a
chance to avoid false charges of mass murder by sarin. If Assad no
longer had such an arsenal, no one could accuse him of using it. (In any
case, the Syrian government's campaign against the rebels was going
well enough using just conventional weapons.)

Instead of
winning approval from the humanitarian warriors of the West, Syria's
eager agreement to surrender its chemical arsenal set off a newly framed
barrage of threats from U.S. and French leaders, with the irrepressible
Secretary Kerry leading the charge. Was this a ploy on Syria's part or a
genuine offer? Kerry asked in a scoffing tone. How can we be certain
that Assad would not sequester its enormous stock of chemical weapons?
Kerry issued a whole barrage of tough-guy threats. Syria will be treated
most harshly if it pursued a path of deception. French President
François Hollande called for a United Nations Security resolution that
would authorize the use of force if Syria failed to hand over its
chemical weapons. One would think that Syria had refused to do so.

The August charge had been that Syria had used chemical weapons , a
claim that might be refuted. Now the new charge was that Syria possessed
such weapons---which was true. And possession itself was suddenly being
treated as a crime deserving of swift and severe retaliation.

Now Assad would have to demonstrate the indemonstrable. He would have
to convince the western aggressors that he has handed over his entire
stockpile of chemical weapons. At the same time, he asserts that a
thorough inspection must not come at the expense of disclosing Syrian
military sites or causing a threat to its national security.

Recall how the Saddam government in Iraq, hoping to avoid war,
cooperated fully with U.N. inspectors hunting for WMDs. Every facility
in the country was opened to investigation. Even after all of Iraq was
occupied, the hunt continued. We were told that the WMDs could be
anywhere, maybe out in some remote part of the desert. It was impossible
to be sure.

I fear that the Syrian population is facing more
years of painful attrition. The one faintly positive development is that
the FSA and the ISIS and all the murderous, Allah-is-great grouplets
continue to attack not only the government forces but each other. Dozens
of rebels have been killed in clashes with each other within the last
few months.

Meanwhile young Syrian children, now living in
refugee camps in Lebanon, go every morning to work long days in the
fields, earning the few dollars a day upon which their families depend
for survival. Some are as young as 5. When asked what they miss most
about Syria, the children say, "school." _________ Michael
Parenti is the author of "The Face of Imperialism" and "Waiting for
Yesterday:Pages from a Street Kid's Life." See his website for more
information: www.michaelparenti.org